Exchange Students
by sarah coldheart raen
Summary: We've all seen people coming into Tortall... have we ever seen Tortallians coming to the real world?
1. Raen's School

Chapter 1: Raen's School Author: Raen Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns Kel, Neal, Faleron, Joren, Merric, Owen. We don't own anything else apart from the plot.  
  
What a nice morning. That is, if your idea of nice is dark clouds covering the sky, lots of rain the night before, wet school grounds and the like. It certainly wasn't mine. I couldn't even figure out what I was doing in school, let alone singing the national anthem and the school song. Gripe. Moan. It was after exams for goodness sake! Then, the announcer came on the stage. Bother. "Girls, I would like to inform you all that the exchange students from Britain will be coming over today. I would appreciate it if you all behaved well and set up a good example to them and their teachers. That is all." Opps. Exchange students. If I remembered correctly, there were supposed to be four of them and one teacher coming to our class. I hopped they were our age (14). I just didn't get along with people younger or older than me.  
  
I made my way back to class, slumping into my seat and slinging my bag to the ground. Grabbing a book from it, I began to read my newly acquired 'Lady Knight'. And the teacher came in. Followed by the exchange students and one teacher. I squashed my book under my already overflowing desk and stood up to great the teacher. "Goood Mooorrinnggg Misss Tannnn" I echoed with the class. We most definitely did not feel like that. Seating back in our seats, I took a look at the exchange students. Two boys and a girl. Greatttttt. I most definitely did not work well with boys. One was a short boy who looked like he was going to explode with excitement, and the other was taller with light blond hair and blue eyes. The girl was very tall, reminding me of the netball school team players, and she had dark hazel eyes. Where have I seen this before? They seemed familiar. Why? Oh, and the teacher was balding and had a scar on his head, and was holding his right arm like a cast. This was weird. Very weird. And then they introduced themselves.  
  
"Hi!" The short boy stepped forward. "My name's Owen and I'm really glad to be here and I'm 13 and I'm very proud to be here representing my school and I want to learn more about this place and I'm really bad in many things but I'm good in others." He was yanked backwards by the girl then. The class, being what we are, applauded. I grinned. He looked, well, jolly. And then I remembered where I had heard of a short boy who was jolly. Oh. The other boy stepped forward.  
  
"Joren. I'm 16. I really hope to get to know everyone better." Many in the class fidgeted nervously. The sarcastic tones in his voice, though little, were easily detectible. Ice King, I thought to my self. Or is it that you read too much Tamora Pierce books and decided to act like that Joren? The girl's turn.  
  
"Hello. My name is Keladry, but you can call me Kel. I'm 14." I felt distinctly weird. Kel, Joren and Owen? What was going on? To complicate matters, I was the only one in class who read Tamora Pierce, apart from Jacquelyn, who read the Circle of Magic series. "I spent the first few years of my life in Japan up to six, as my father's the ambassador there. I really like it there. I hope that I can get to know everyone better." Ok.weird weird weird. This was the correct description of Kel and Joren and Owen from the books, but what the heck are they doing here? What's going on? And the teacher is.  
  
Miss Tan stepped forward. "Welcome to 2A. I hope you all will like it here. Owen, you can go to group 1. (Hyper People group) Keladry, why not group 2, (Japanese Lovers Group) and Joren can go to group 3. (My group. What??)" Why couldn't Kel have come to my group? I get Joren instead? Not fair. Then Joren came forward.  
  
"Do you have a spare seat?" I started. Then nodded. I pointed towards the stack of spare chairs at the back of the class. He went and got one. I noticed that Keladry went at the same time, and he deliberately went out of his way to bump into her. Pig, I thought. Then walked back and put his chair down. At my desk. To be specific, the side of my desk. WHAT? Why me? And.. My friends were looking at him like he was some sort of handsome thing. NOT. Their teacher stepped forward next, once all three were settled down.  
  
"I am Sir Wydlon, addressed as sir. I will be sitting in this lesson. I hope to see good behaviour from all of you." It was impossible to tell if he was talking to his students or to us. I didn't bother to ask. He sat in a chair at the side of the class, and the lesson began. With Joren at my elbow. *Shriek in mind*.  
  
* * *  
  
I couldn't wait till recess, not with all my group mates passing me notes like 'Oh god that guy's so cute' and such. They were totally clueless about what he really was like. Weird. When recess came, I didn't hang around to familiarise with the three, but ran down to the canteen. I had to call Sarah, my cousin. She was as Tamora Pierce crazy as me, we being the only two in the family. I rushed to the coin phone, stuck in a coin and dialled her handphone. It wasn't too long before she picked it up. "Sarah, remember I told you about the exchange students I'm going to get? Their pretty nice, apart from their names being Owen, Keladry and Joren." Silence on the line. For a long time. Then: "Raen, I told you I was getting exchange students too, right? Well, their names are Nealan, Cleon and Faleron. I'm not kidding you." I got a shock. Sarah would never kid anyone, let alone me. "What?" I asked. "Are you sure?" Then who should appear at my side but Joren. Eep. 


	2. Sarah's School

Author: Sarah's turn now! Hehe…

Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns Kel, Neal, Faleron, Joren, Merric, Owen. We don't own anything else apart from the plot. 

Author's note: For those who don't know what a polytechnic is, it's something like a Junior College but uh, different and that's where we're supposed to be at. And a handphone is a cellphone to those unsure of term. Oooh and a strawberry twist is yummy! It's kinda like a strawberry smoothie.

Chapter 2 

"Raen? You still there? Either my handphone is fuzzing out or you just…hung up on me" I mumbled when I heard the click. 

"Great, just great…" I muttered and glared at the phone then to the Tortallian Trio just a few metres away from me.

We were at a small space that was between two lecture theatres, it's usually a hangout place for us design students in the school to wait for our next classes to begin and currently the three guys were starting to be accepted by the males in my subject course. Ugh, and they just _had_ to meet the b-boys and punks. 

"Hey Neal! Cleon and oh yeah… Fal… want to go with me to the uh… library?" I asked, a bit weirded out to see Faleron doing a headstand and imitating a breakdancing move by my friend while Neal sipped a strawberry twist and Cleon talking to the punks. 

"Hey, we're talkin here!" Li Wei protested. 

"I really insist that they should follow me to the library…" and glared a bit at Li Wei and the other brats (punks and b-boys, whatever).

"If it's really that important moon of my night, I would gladly follow you!" smiled Cleon.

"Shouldn't you be saving that line for someone else, someone who's name starts with a 'K' and rhymes with… Oh… I don't know, Geladry?" I asked.

Watching Neal spew a strawberry twist out his nose was not a pretty sight, so was seeing Faleron fall on his back while trying a flip.

"Oh the pain!…The pain!" Neal groaned while holding his nose. 

"I don't really know what you're talking about…" Cleon denied and helped Fal up.

Huh, really. Sure, go ahead and pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about. I am _so_ going to get a confession out of you three.

"Whatever, come on… let me show you the library… it's really big about eleven stories tall and I want you to see my one of my favourite books there… First Test, Protector of the Small…I'm quite sure you guys would love to read it" I grinned.

Seeing the look on their faces _was_ fun. Hmm… maybe I could blackmail them into telling me the details of Lady Knight… it would certainly be better than buying the book since I could hear it from themselves. 


	3. Raen's school 2

Chapter 2: I get back at Joren. Ha! Author: Raen Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns Kel, Neal, Faleron, Joren, Merric, Owen. We don't own anything else apart from the plot.  
  
I hung up. Sarah would be a little surprised, but heck. Then Joren spoke. "So?"  
  
Me: So what? Joren: Well, when you were running out of the class to make you're phone call, you may not have heard your teacher. Me: Fine, so you did. Tell me, what did she say? Joren: If you really didn't hear, you're supposed to show me around the school. Right now, might I add. Me: *blank stare* Joren: Well? It's not my choice, you being 2 years younger, but what else can I do?  
  
I didn't want to believe it. Me, saddled with Joren the *censored* for the whole recess? How was I going to play football with the Sec 1's while showing him around? Still, he seemed pretty civil. At least he had manners. I relented. But not very much. Being too lazy to walk round, I gave him a walkthrough. Ha.  
  
"Ok. so this is the canteen, where we have our meals, as you may have noticed. Um, if you turn out and go left, you'll pass by the general office. Then the staircase ahead leads to the classes. The staircase over there also leads to the classes, but it goes all the way up to level six. The other one only goes to level four. You know where the hall is, and the library block is over there. Oh, and that block is where my class will be going after recess, as the home economic classes are held there. If I'm not mistaken, we're cooking some desert today. I don't think you brought an apron, so you may have to borrow one from the teacher. Believe me, she's fat. Very. Well, that's about it. Any questions?"  
  
Over time, and with practice, I was able to speak very fast. At least when I was explaining what had happened to my homework. So, just to see how he reacted, I did that at hyper speed. Certainly not as fast as some of my classmates, but fast enough. And I did slow down on the part about home economics.  
  
Joren blanched. He didn't look particularly happy, but then, I couldn't blame him. He tried to change the subject. "When I came into the class, I noticed you put something under your desk. What was that?"  
  
Hopping to catch me unaware? We'll see.  
  
"That? That was a book of mine, written by Tamora Pierce. Have you heard of her? She's really good. That was the last book in a quartet, Lady Knight. The series is about a girl called Keladry, also the name of your friend. She becomes a knight, therefore the title. Oh, she had this enemy, called Joren, which also happens to be your name. Strange, isn't it?"  
  
Of course, I was smirking.  
  
"Pity he dies a terrible death in the chamber of the ordeal, though. If you go to this site on the web, 'fanfiction.net' if I recall, and check out the Tamora Pierce sections, you'll see a lot of stories in which Joren isn't dead, becomes a knight, and falls in love with Kel. Some of them are really good. You ought to check it out, you know."  
  
The colour was drained, or in the process of being drained from Joren's face. I was still smirking madly. This was too much fun.  
  
"There's even something about talk shows in which Joren is asked questions. I particularly like one in which he wears a green emerald dress. Would you like me to tell you the title?"  
  
The question hung in the air.  
  
Then Joren ran.  
  
I laughed for a long time after that. I wondered if Joren would still be in my group in home economics. Suddenly I felt like I was going to have fun after all. Grinning madly, I ran to join my friends in a game of football. 


	4. Sarah's School 2

Author: Sarah

Disclaimer: Tamora Pierce owns Kel, Neal, Faleron, Joren, Merric, Owen. We don't own anything else apart from the plot. 

Author's note: Thanks to all who reviewed, muchly! And yes, the library IS about eleven stories tall, including the basement.

Chapter 4

Thank goodness I was one of the lucky ones who had a convenient schedule, I just hung about in school for fun, literally since I had already done my homework and projects. 

And ah yes, where was I? 

Dragging Neal by the hand while Cleon and Faleron followed me to the library. 

"This here is the library!" I proclaimed in front of the entrance, getting a few stares thrown at my direction from the passerby students.

"Quite fascinating did you know that lib…" said Neal.

"Let's get in!" I interrupted, shoving them towards the door.

"Dreams of my…" Cleon started to ramble before I shhed him.

"Library. Quiet. Just follow me…" I muttered and prodded them to the direction of the stairs and opened the door.

"Now, I want you guys to meet me at the tenth floor… I got to get some thing first ok?" 

"But… isn't that the lif…" Faleron whispered.

"No, that's just a… box thingy… wouldn't want to be stuck in that would we?" I mumbled, 

"It's very obvious really once you get to the tenth floor, just get a seat anywhere there…and off you go!" 

It was one of my theories, if they could run up to the tenth floor, then maybe they'd be muddle headed enough to tell me all about Tortall and why they came, that and the fact that I knew Wyldon had trained them running up and down the stairs of the border of the something building.

Ugh, can't even remember my facts straight.

Making sure they had already went up a floor, I went inside the lift and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

~~~

I strode in at the tenth floor from the lift carrying Alanna's, Daine's and Kel's quartet, minus Lady Knight (the stupid library hadn't got it yet). Neal, Cleon and Faleron were sitting on the sofas, a bit out of breath. Well, so much for my theory on Wyldon.

"Hey didn't you say that was a box thingy?" Faleron gasped as I approached and dumped the books on the table.

"Er, yeah… but I'm _experienced_ with the box thingy…erm whatever… now guess what guys!" I grinned.

"What?" they all asked, as expected of them.

"I'm going to show you a bunch of my favourite books… here… have this..this.. and this…" I said and shoved the Alanna quartet to Neal, Daine's to Cleon and Kel's to Faleron while keeping a hold on Kel's third book.

"You know… isn't it a _coincidence_ that you guys have the same names as the guys in this series?" I innocently (yeah, right) pointed out as I sat and prodded Neal on the chest with the book.

"Maybe you shouldn't really talk so much… this _is_ a library after all…" Neal whispered harshly, looking quite a bit frightened.

"Pearl of my oyster…maybe you should really sit down properly…like as in _next_ to him?" Cleon suggested.

What?..Oh right… I was practically sitting on Neal's lap, with him still holding onto Alanna's books and still prodding on his chest with a hardcover copy of Kel's book. Well, Neal _did_ look particularly cute when terrified.

I sat next to him, pushing Faleron a bit to get some space and opened the book.

"Now, let's see… I'll tell you a bit of the story here… there's a nice paragraph about Joren going out with Keladry and proclaiming his love here…" I said.

"Now hold on, Joren was dead at that time and _I_ was the one who loved Kel…" Cleon protested.

I grinned at him.

"Now, tell me what happened in Lady Knight!" I demanded while bouncing over to Cleon's side of the sofa.

I thought I heard Neal sigh in relief or something. Hmm…must do something about that.

"Erk…well um…" Cleon started to say before…


End file.
